As it happened: Travel chaos as world awaits Heathrow flight resumption
A man speaks to the phone near a notice about a power outage at Heathrow International Airport, after a fire at an electrical substation wiped out power at the airport, at the Paddington railway station in London, Britain, Mar 21, 2025. (Photo: REUTERS/Isabel Infantes)
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Heathrow finds itself under intense scrutiny after a fire knocked out power to force a complete shutdown of one of the world’s busiest airports on Friday (Mar 21).
The incident threw global travel into turmoil, with experts shocked by the scale of the outage.
Investigations into the cause of the fire, which occurred at a nearby substation, are ongoing, and the UK police have ruled out foul play.
However, questions have also been raised over a perceived lack of better contingency planning.
As the UK faces questions on how one fire could shut down an entire airport, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband called it an “unprecedented event” and said the country’s government is determined to “learn the appropriate lessons” from the incident.
The airport earlier said it would be closed until 11.59pm on Friday.
Here’s a recap of what happened:
